


Don't Let Go

by PaxDuane



Series: Phir se Karna [2]
Category: Star Wars Legends: Jango Fett Open Seasons (Comics)
Genre: Chalactan heritage Fetts, Coming of Age, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Growing Up, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Politics, Short Chapters, post-Korda-6, technically
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:15:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29320758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaxDuane/pseuds/PaxDuane
Summary: “We are their aliit. They will not want to leave.”Mace falters. He knows. He knows the Haat’ade are Jango’s aliit. They were Jaster’s all since Mace knew him.“Avva?” Jango interrupts, the fourteen-year-old trailed by a concerned Depa. Their eyes are ringed with red. Mace is half surprised they’re talking and haven’t gone back to signing only.“Jango…” Mace opens his arms and catches him close. Kark Death Watch, kark Korda-6, kark that he could not be here sooner. “I’m sorry we came so late.”Or.Jaster dies. Mace could have given up custody of Jango. Instead, he brings the 14-year-old Mand'alor into the Jedi Temple. Jango matures among Jedi, and the galaxy changes.
Relationships: Depa Billaba & Jango Fett, Depa Billaba & Mace Windu, Jango Fett & Jocasta Nu, Jango Fett & Mace Windu, Jocasta Nu & Mace Windu, past-Jaster Mereel/Mace Windu
Series: Phir se Karna [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1839121
Comments: 26
Kudos: 54





	1. Chapter 1

“Do Jedi not mourn?” is the first the Haat’ade goran asks him, amusement in their voice.

Mace releases his frustration into the Force. For all he is—was—Jaster’s husband, he is still an outsider. For all he is Jango’s other buir, their only of four left, he is still an outsider. And in their grief, he will not fault any of them for it. “We do. But when Force sensitives mourn how non-sensitives often do, things tend to go wrong.”

“Wrong?” the goran asks. There’s apprehension seeping out from under their beskar. They’ve given up their name, half as a service to their position and half because both they and Jaster divorced their siblings, Jaster’s adopted siblings, when their buir died and Tor decided he would not accept Jaster as the successor, lack of Force sensitivity or not. Despite their continued closeness to Jaster, they are still uncertainty in how they interact with Force sensitives.

“Depa, find Jango,” he says in Chalactani. “More people die,” he tells the Goran in Basic as his seventeen-year-old padawan goes to find her cousin. “Things break, big things. We become so overwhelmed with our grief, and all the emotions in it, that we can Fall. And if we do not pick ourselves up, well. You’ve heard tales of the darjetii, of the Sith.”

At length, the goran says, “Ah.”

“Jango is coming back with us,” he says.

The goran rears up. “ _What_?”

“I’m their next of kin. Unless you want to reach out to the Raja.”

“They are our Mand’alor,” the goran hisses. “They will stay with us. When the clans have ratified the granting of the title, they will expect them to be here.”

“And where will they live?” Mace asks. “What will they do during the planting season? The harvest? They’re too young to work their inherited land themself. And that’s without considering that even Mandalore sets legal majority at eighteen, unless legally emancipated.”

“One of the families will take them in.” They cannot take them. Even if they had not given up their name, they could not. It would be a conflict of interest for the company’s elected smith to care for the Mand’alor, being the primary leader of the Haat’ade as a clan.

Mace sighs. “Jango is my child. Legally.”

“You are an auretii, they are Mand’alor. And you would have them be raised on Coruscant.”

“Yes, where they can learn politics and others’ cultures. Where they can learn how to deal with the Senate, and Kalevala, without having to be right in the thick of the New Mandalorians.” Mace meets the goran’s eyes through their buy’ce visor. “They won’t be gone forever.”

“And when we march?”

“Then they will lead you.”

The goran pauses. “We are their aliit. They will not want to leave.”

Mace falters. He knows. He knows the Haat’ade are Jango’s aliit. They were Jaster’s all since Mace knew him.

“Avva?” Jango interrupts, the fourteen-year-old trailed by a concerned Depa. Their eyes are ringed with red. Mace is half surprised they’re talking and haven’t gone back to signing only.

“Jango…” Mace opens his arms and catches him close. Kark Death Watch, kark Korda-6, kark that he could not be here sooner. “I’m sorry we came so late.”

“Depa said you were in a firefight.”

“Not at the time it happened,” Mace allows. “But when I felt Jaster go… I knew we needed to get here. The Council is unhappy with me.”

“Because of me?”

“Because I set a corrupt official on fire and started a firefight and didn’t clear borrowing our ship from the senator we were there with until we were already out of atmo.”

Jango lets out a wet giggle.

Mace tightens his arms around his child, Jaster’s child.

Would Jaster want them to stay with the Haat’ade, with whatever family would see to the rest of their education? Would he agree with Mace to bring Jango to Coruscant?

Would that family allow them to keep up with Chalacta? Would they let them keep their place in the royal family?

Something in that question clutches his chest. There are so many shatterpoints clinging to his child.

“Jango?” Mace asks, kneeling down so he can look up at his child, can cup their stony face. He needs to ask—he won’t make the choice to take them away on his own. “Do you want to come back to Coruscant, with us? You’d stay with us at the Temple through the farming seasons, but you’d march with the Haat’ade when they fight.”

Jango’s fingers catch on Mace’s robes. “I’d live in the Temple?” they ask, doubt tinging their voice. “That would be okay?”

“Of course it would be okay, ad’ika,” he tells them. “If anything, we can hide you in the archives. Jocasta likes you better than anyone else.”

Jango’s smile is brittle, but it’s there. “I want to go with you, if it will be okay.”

The goran wilts.

“I’ll be back, Ba’Vodu,” they promise, cognizant as ever of others’ moods. More than anything Mace or Jaster taught them, that sympathy keeps them from falling out of grief. Mace should have remembered that—it’s not their fault that the goran simply is still unused to Force sensitives. “And I’ll have the same comm code, right?” they ask Mace.

“As best we can,” Mace promises. “We’ll get you another for doing things on Coruscant, so there’s no risk it breaks.”

The goran nods, somewhat mollified. “Jaster left money, in trust, for Jango’s upbringing in case this happened.”

“I have access to Jaster’s accounts. If we could arrange for the trust to transfer in there…by month, possibly?”

“I’ll see it done.” The goran nods to him, then bows to Jango. “Mand’alor.”

“Goran.”

“Ret’urcye mhi, vod’ad’ika,” the goran says, reaching out and ruffling Jango’s hair.

“Ret’urcye mhi, Ba’Vodu.” Jango preens a little. “Don’t let dar’aliit kill you.”

“Of course not.” There’s an obvious grin under their buy’ce. “And don’t let Coruscant make you soft.”

“I doubt they could if they tried.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Thank you for understanding, Senator Antilles,” Mace says over the ship’s comm.

“It’s no problem,” Antilles assures him. “It’s nice, to see that the Jedi are not so removed from emotion. We put it out of our minds, I think. To see you run to find your son when you found out your husband died…”

Mace winces at the misgendering of Jango. “They are a good child, but they needed me more than your planet did in that moment.” Even before he learned Jango had been elected Mand’alor, he felt that. Now, he just has back up for the Council.”

“I’d love to meet hi—them,” she says, smiling and catching her last mistake. “Maybe when we meet on Coruscant, after you get them settled.”

Mace smiles. “I’m sure they’d like to meet you. You’re proof that not all senators are self-interested criminals, which I’m afraid their father somewhat impressed on them.”

“Did he?”

“He was not a fan of the Senate,” Mace admits.

“And yet he fell in love with a Jedi.” Senator Antilles sighs. “Some might say that’s excessively romantic.”

“If it was a romance novel, like you somewhat implied, he’d have stopped hating the Senate.” And the Republic.

They say their laughing goodbyes and he goes to find his children.

Depa is curled up in her berth, Jango asleep tucked between her and the wall. They dropped off about as soon as the ship left atmo, which makes Mace think they haven’t been sleeping since Jaster’s death.

“How are they?” he asks Depa.

Depa hums. “Their mind is jumbled, but it’s settling.” She looks up to him. “They broke almost everything in the tent. It all was just imploded. Like an egg in a fist.”

Mace reaches over to run his fingers through their hair. “I wish we’d been there.”

“To save Buir?”

“To make sure Jango wasn’t alone without another Force sensitive.” He pauses, unsure if she knows or has guessed, unsure if she’d take it well if she doesn’t. “Jaster and Jango had a bond not unlike we do.”

Depa takes the information and rolls it about her head like a sommelier rolls wine on their tongue. “Ah.”

“We’ll be on Coruscant in about a day. Get some sleep—we’ll have to face the Council as soon as we’ve dropped Jango off either in our rooms or at the Archives. It depends on how long we can hold them off. If we don’t have much time, they’ll stay with Madame Nu.”

Depa nods. “Okay, Master.”


	3. Chapter 3

Jango has matched wits with Jocasta Nu before. Somehow, it came out with them being her favorite. So it’s no surprise that, when the Council calls Mace and Depa in almost immediately, they’re fine with being left in the Archives.

Mace is happy that at least one of his children is still easy to distract.

“Councilors,” Mace greets, bowing low to the encircled Masters.

“Master Windu,” Master Sinube greets. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

Mace straightens up, meets several of the councilors in the eye. “I arrived too late for Jaster Mereel’s pyre. I’ve taken full custody of Jango Fett.”

Master Yoda hisses a little. “Not Council approved, that is.”

“You once approved my marriage and my joint custody of Jango,” Mace reminds them.

“We did,” another councilor agrees. “But taking full custody…Did he not have any family besides you?”

Mace glares at her. “ _They_ need stability, and me taking custody was the best option. Leaving them on Mandalore would have left them open for manipulation.”

Sinube squints. “Manipulation?”

Master Poof interrupts before he can continue, though. “Did you meet with the new Mand’alor?”

Mace grins and feels no humor. “By the time we reached Coruscant airspace, the Mandalorian clans ratified the election of Mand’alor Jango Fett.”

Sinube’s eyes widen, along with several other councilors. “Ah. I see what you meant.”

“We have another Mand’alor in the Jedi Temple?” one councilor asks. “Is that wise?”

“This is the best place for them to be, when not marching at the head of the Mando’ade,” Mace explains. “Here, they can learn much more about interacting with the galaxy as a leader without feeling pressure and without being forced to do it as opposition. Even if this was not my child, this is a good option for fostering a relationship between the Order and the Mandalorians.”

Master Yoda narrows his eyes, then taps his gimmer stick. “A vote, to keep Mand’alor Fett and Master Windu in the Temple, we will have.”

“And Master Windu? What, should we be banishing him with Fett?” asks the councilor who had asked of the wisdom of keeping Jango in the Temple.

“If you are to force Jango away from this safe place this political sanctuary, myself and my Padawan would go as well,” Mace says mildly.

Depa nods her serious agreement. She loves her cousin dearly.

The vote is unanimous.


	4. Chapter 4

“So?” Jocasta asks. “How did it go?”

“Jango filled you in?” Mace asks, tracking his youngest child as they bully Depa into helping them shelve books.

“They did.”

“We’re staying. There are some concessions I must make, of course, but… They are home, here, with us.”

“What kind of concessions?” she asks, mind and voice sharp.

“No one is to be actually told of Jango’s title, for their own safety,” Mace starts. “Jango will be educated in part at Ekatrines, instead of fully at the Temple, at least until they get tired of them being gone half the year.”

Jocasta nods at the first and grimaces at the second. “They will not have an easy time, there. Nor will the school.” She pauses. “Wait, the council does not intend to make them stay at the boarding part of the school, do they?”

Mace hums. “They did not say, but I’m reasonably sure the school will try to insist on it. And I won’t have much ability to argue.”

“What else?” Jocasta asks, obviously dreading what is to be said.

“No one outside of those with current knowledge are to know that Jango is my child and is only to be considered my ward. And they cannot go on missions with Depa or I.”

She huffs. “Those are…less damaging than Ekatrines.” She pauses, watching the children with him. “No, they will not go there. That school will hurt them, Mace.”

Mace looks to her, surprised, and nearly winces at the shatterpoint around her. “I know you’ve been dismissive of them before, but…”

“Jango is Force sensitive, and a trained Force sensitive at that,” Jocasta reminds him. “It will stunt them, at the least, and cause issues with peers and staff at the worst. No, I’m protesting that concession.”

“The Council wants to keep them occupied, while they’re here,” Mace tries to explain. “And putting them in classes here at the Temple would arouse suspicion.”

“Then I’ll teach them,” she says decisively.

Mace stares at her as the shatterpoint dissolves. “Alright,” he agrees. “But I can’t help you argue it to the Council.”

“I wouldn’t ask you to,” she assures him. “I’ll meet all three of you in your quarters for dinner and we will plan.”

“Thank you, Jocasta,” Mace breathes. He looks again at his children, his bright, laughing children. “Thank you.”


	5. Chapter 5

Quarters, Mace realizes as Jango and Depa move around each other, are going to be an issue. Once, it was no issue for them all to stay together in this area of five rooms. Even four of them, the few times Jaster had time to be snuck in. But those were never terribly lengthy, and there’s grief in those memories, and, well.

For all Jango is exhausted and mourning, they’re a teenager now. Depa is an even older teenager, now.

Mace pulls his datapad out of his pack and sends a request to the quartermaster based on, as the Council has decided, him bringing a ward into the Temple. Jango’s age will hopefully allow Mace to argue for all of them being moved to a more diplomatic suite arrangement.

Then, he tosses all of his packs into his quarters and draws Jango to the sofa, curling the child into him.

“I’m so sorry,” he says again, for maybe the hundredth time since he’d seen Jango broken with grief. He presses a kiss to Jango’s curls.

“He’s with the Manda, now, one with the Force,” Jango whispers and they all know it’s a bare comfort.

Jango did not cry much, as an adiik. If something upset them, even in that first year of grief so heavy they did not speak aloud, they tended to sit with it and process it. They were slow and gentle with their emotions in a way that Jaster, whose rage ran fast though it was cold, and Mace, even raised by the Jedi as he was, could not understand. It had taken the Raja’s realization and explanation, that time did not always work quite the same with their blood, for them to understand it.

Depa slots herself against Jango’s other side, comforting them in her own way.

“And he will be avenged,” Mace says. It’s not his own promise, it just _is_.

Jango nods.

Mace scrubs a hand through their curls. “Jocasta is fighting with the Council about one thing, but I need to talk to you both about the concessions I made to make the Council comfortable with you staying.”

Jango flinches. “I…”

“Your safety is the top concern,” Mace soothes. “No one who doesn’t know will be told that you are Mand’alor, or that you are my child. As far as anyone is to know, you are my ward and, while politically important, no one is to know precisely _how_ important. You also are not allowed to go on missions with Depa and I.”

“I’m Mandalorian,” Jango protests, “And you are my aliit, how do I know you’ll be safe?”

There’s something there, something quivering on a razor’s edge.

He needs to get Jango into a mind healer’s office.

“It is not your job to protect us,” Mace says, stern but not unkind. “I am your father and, like Jaster, that means your safety comes before my own. We chose that, Jan’ka.”

Before that particular sentence can sink in too deep, Depa butts in. “And I’m your or’tat, which means I protect you, not the other way around.” Her tone is just pompous and lofty enough to send the two snarling like tookas.

It’s distracting them from their grief digging in to deep, so Mace leaves them to it until it looks about to come to blows, making him scruff the two of them by their collars and separate them. They pout and wheedle, only sullenly making up just before Jocasta arrives, food in hand and a viciously triumphant smile on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next two weeks will have binder'verse updates, then I'll make a decision on when I'm updating this next (either the following two weeks or something else). I do have over ten more parts of this written! I'll just post when I post.


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